


Possession

by gmariam



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Episode: s02e02 Sleeper, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-21 00:41:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16148936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gmariam/pseuds/gmariam
Summary: Ianto comes into work the morning after the team defeats Cell 114 and finds one of his co-workers is not the same person as the one he knew. With the Hub on lockdown, he must save Gwen, himself, and the city of Cardiff-again, but alone.





	1. Part One

Part One

Ianto let himself into the Hub, a box of pastries for the team tucked under his arm. The previous day had been hard—stopping a nuclear apocalypse was not on their usual list of ways to save the world—and the whole team had been upset after being forced to kill Beth Halloran. Gwen, especially, had been unhappy, and Ianto knew she'd still be struggling, questioning how they had handled the case and what they could have done differently to save Beth.

The tourist office was empty, as usual, and he made his way downstairs, expecting it to be dark and quiet given how early it was even for him. To his surprise, the lights were on; perhaps Jack was up and about already, though he usually stayed in his room or his office until the others arrived. Ianto set the box down by the sofa and went over to Jack's office, but he was not at his desk, nor was he down in his bunker. Curious, Ianto stepped back into the Hub to find Gwen coming up from the stairs to the lower levels. She froze when she saw him, like a deer caught in headlights.

For some reason, Ianto immediately felt off. Gwen rarely came in before him, and there was an airabout the way she looked and moved that seemed apprehensive, even suspect. His first thought, shamefully, was that she was there to see Jack, that they were hiding something together; she did look somewhat rumpled and nervous. Then he told himself to stop thinking that way, because Gwen was engaged to be married. She might not respect that commitment, given her previous relationship with Owen, but Jack would, even if he did flirt too much. And besides, Jack had asked Ianto out on a date and was still patiently waiting for Ianto to actually take him up on it three weeks later.

Still, something was wrong. Where was Jack? Ianto smiled so that he did not give away his concerns. "Good morning," he said. "You're in early today."

She looked leery, as if he were accusing her of murder instead of simply coming in to work early. Which he wasn't—not yet. Her eyes darted back toward the stairs as she rubbed at her left arm. He chanced a quick glance and noticed something dark on the floor. Processing it without blinking, his instincts were now on high alert: it looked like blood. Jack was gone, Gwen was uneasy, and there was blood on the floor. Ianto sensed that he was in danger, and knew he had to tread carefully.

Gwen didn't respond, so Ianto moved toward his station as if he were getting ready for the day. He saw more blood on the floor—footprints leading across the Hub to the stairs. He needed to lock down the Hub. Something was wrong, it almost certainly had to do with Gwen, and he couldn't let her out. Which meant the others couldn't get in to help, but he couldn't risk her leaving, not in the state she was in. Which Ianto wasn't sure of, but somehow, he knew it wasn't really Gwen standing there, even though she still hadn't said a word. Her body language, even the look in her eyes, was all wrong.

Pretending to check his email and get his work area ready, Ianto disabled the alarms and silently put the Hub into soft lockdown mode, which meant they kept power, but the doors sealed with no exit or entry until the reset sequence was triggered. If she sensed he had done anything, she gave no sign. She was still standing by the steps, watching him warily. He turned back toward her with a smile. "Would you like a pastry? They're on the table. I'll start some coffee if you care to join me."

She nodded and walked slowly toward the sofa. She was still wearing her coat and rubbing her arm again, almost subconsciously. Ianto went to make them coffee, taking the opportunity to see if anything else was out of place in the Hub. He only noticed the blood, faint footprints that started at the medical bay. Gwen appeared uninjured aside from her arm, so unless someone else had come in, it must be Jack's blood. He hoped it was Jack's blood, because at least Jack would come back. It briefly occurred to him that it could be from Gwen's fiancé, but given Jack's conspicuous absence, Ianto strongly suspected that Gwen had killed Jack and somehow dragged him downstairs. He was probably in one of the cells.

The question was – why?

While it was not impossible to think that Gwen had suffered a major psychotic break overnight, it seemed unlikely. In their line of work, abrupt personality changes that involved killing a coworker usually involved alien intervention. And given what they'd been through the day before with Beth and the alien sleeper cell, Ianto wasn't taking any chances. He needed to be careful.

He brought two mugs of coffee over to the table by the sofa and sat down, motioning to Gwen to join him. She still hadn't spoken, which confirmed that something was not right. Gwen Cooper didn't stay silent, she said what she wanted to say, when she wanted to say it. Especially when she was upset, and Ianto knew she had been upset yesterday. He watched her sit down, trying to decide how best to approach the situation now that he was on his own.

"How are you?" he asked, taking a cherry pastry from the box and sitting back, trying to appear normal even though he felt so tense she must have noticed. "After yesterday?"

She didn't answer, so he kept talking, trying to pull her out. Something was terribly wrong; the silence was unnerving.

"It was a hard day. I was on the phone most of the night, liaising with the new city coordinator. I know you were busy with the police. Jack gave the military a piece of his mind about that nuclear bunker while Owen collected the bodies of the sleeper cell. Tosh changed all the passwords and security protocols for the Hub."

For some reason, that got her to talk. "She did?" Gwen's voice betrayed both anger and surprise, which she quickly tried to cover. "But I was able to get in this morning."

"You must have used the new code," Ianto pointed out. Which she should have remembered receiving from Tosh before she left.

"Right," Gwen said, unconvincingly. "That's right. So everything is different now?"

"I'm sure she'll fill you in later," Ianto replied lightly. Not a chance, though. Tosh wasn't getting in, and Gwen wasn't getting out.

As if she knew they were talking about her, Ianto felt his mobile vibrate and found a text from Tosh. After Suzie had locked them in, leaving them with no way to contact the outside world until Ianto had reconfigured his mobile to use the water tower, Tosh had made sure their phones worked during a lockdown.

_Hub on LD. Are you there?_

Gwen tried to glance at his phone with a curious look, but Ianto gave her a smile as he tilted it away. "It's Tosh, wanting to make sure I got in all right. She'll be here in a while." He texted her back, trying not to give anything away.

_Code Two. G comp. J missing._

He deleted the messages as soon as he sent it, then slipped the phone into his pocket and sipped some coffee, trying to ignore the suspicious look Gwen was giving him. Instead, he leaned back again and offered a look of sympathy.

"Are you okay?" he asked. He motioned toward her arm. "Were you hurt yesterday?"

She stopped rubbing her arm and put her hands in her lap. "Just sore. Probably the explosion at the hospital."

Ianto didn't remember it bothering her the day before, and suspected it had something to do with her strange behavior instead. He went another direction. "I'm sorry about how it all ended. I know losing Beth was hard."

Gwen reached forward and took an apple muffin, not her usual blueberry. She bit into it and shrugged in a very uncharacteristic way, like she wasn't affected by Beth's death, when yesterday she'd been so angry and upset.

"Maybe we saved her," Gwen said.

"From who?" Ianto asked.

"From herself," Gwen replied. "She wasn't human, but she believed she was. She couldn't be both."

Ianto nodded and took another bite of his pastry to hide his surprise. "You seemed to think she was human yesterday."

"Before the programming started taking over," Gwen replied. "You weren't there, you didn't see her kill her husband. She could control the implants. She was fighting it, but it was still there."

"She helped us," Ianto pointed out.

"She had no choice," Gwen said, her voice harsher than usual.

"It seems to me that she chose to help us," Ianto said. "Even at the end, she chose to be human."

"But she wouldn't have stayed that way," Gwen said, and now she sounded sad. "In the end, she had no choice but to be what she was."

"Like you don't?" Ianto asked softly, bracing himself for any sudden moves. The short conversation had only confirmed his belief: something had happened to Gwen. She would have never given up on Beth Halloran like the woman sitting next to him. The woman who now twitched, but turned toward him with a fake smile.

"What do you mean?" she asked, setting down her mug. Ianto did the same.

"You believed in her," he said. "Right until the end. What changed?"

"Nothing changed," she said, and Ianto didn't believe a word. "I realized the truth, that's all."

"And what's that?"

She glanced around, then leaned in as if telling him a secret. "We don't have a chance against this, Ianto. This cell, this race. They look like us, talk like us, live like us. And then one day they turn on us. But we don't know who they are, we don't know when it'll happen. There's nothing we can do."

"We know they're out there," Ianto said. "So, we can prepare and be ready when it happens."

The side of Gwen's mouth curled up. "No, you can't. Because you never know who it might be, when it will come."

Ianto immediately picked up on the change in language and tone. Gwen seemed to realize her slip and jumped up with wide eyes. Ianto caught her by the wrist and gripped tight as she tried to walk away.

"Who are you and what have you do to Gwen?"

She hissed at him like a madwoman, and lashed out with her other arm, catching him by surprise on the side of his head. It loosened his grip on her enough for her to pull her arm free and move away, but Ianto reacted quickly and threw himself over the table after her.

He tackled her around the legs and they both went down in a tangle of limbs. She hit and kicked and even scratched, but he held tight. She was ferociously strong; Ianto had never wrestled with Gwen before, but he was certain her strength was not normal. He didn't want to hurt her, but he had to subdue her before she hurt herself—or him.

He smacked her across the face, more to startle her than to injure, and when she looked at him in shock, he flipped her over and pinned her arms behind her back. He needed something to tie them together. Sitting on her back, making sure his weight still allowed her to breathe, he quickly took off his tie and wrapped it around her wrists. She had her weapon tucked into her trousers, and he tossed it onto the sofa. Pulling her up, he was dismayed to see that her lip was bleeding from being pressed into the floor; he felt a number of scratches and bruises on his own face as well.

He pushed her onto a chair next to the sofa. "Who are you and what have you done to Gwen?"

She spat at him. He stepped back in shock, a part of him heartbroken, a part of him terrified. He hadn't wanted to be right, that something or someone had compromised Gwen, but he couldn't ignore the hissing creature in front of him. It wasn't Gwen. The woman in front of him was wild-eyed and practically foaming at the mouth as she struggled against her bonds. Ianto paced several times, trying to settle his racing heart, then leaned over her.

"Tell me what happened to Gwen. Did you kill her?"

Gwen-not-Gwen laughed at him, nothing like her normal open laugh. High and cruel, it made his skin crawl, and he resisted the temptation to hit the creature once more. "Tell me!"

"I am her," she said. "I'm here, inside her body. It's mine now."

"Like hell it is," Ianto snapped. "What are you?"

Her lips peeled back in such an ugly sneer that Ianto stepped back again. She started speaking in a language that wasn't her own, but sounded terrifyingly familiar.

It was the voice of Beth Halloran, coming from Gwen's throat. Name, rank, serial number.

Ianto turned his back and stepped away, sick to his stomach. How was it even possible? Beth was dead, her body and its horrifying implants incinerated last night with the others. Why was Gwen talking like her? What had happened—and how could Ianto fix it? He glanced around the Hub, swearing as the implication of the lockdown hit him: he was alone. The only thing he could do was get Gwen into one of the cells and wait for the others.

He turned toward Gwen only to find her standing immediately behind him, her hands still behind her back. She grinned and head-butted him, hitting him hard on the chin and sending him reeling backward. He tried to catch his balance, blinking heavily as he barely managed to stay steady and upright. Gwen-not-Gwen took the opportunity to horrify him even more.

With a vicious grin, she pulled first her right arm and then her left over her head, still tied together and stretching unnaturally. It shouldn't have been possible, Ianto should have heard the crack as her shoulders dislocated, but he didn't. Her face was contorted in pain, yet her hands were now in front of her now—and she reached into her jacket pocket for a second gun. Jack's gun. Where had she got Jack's gun? Had he really not noticed it when they were fighting, when he tied her up?

"She didn't think you'd be here this early," she said. "But it doesn't matter. You can't stop us, Ianto Jones. Not this time."

And she pulled the trigger.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, the way our minds work sometimes! I asked Summerstar what was a story she hadn't seen before that might be good to see? She suggested a post-Sleeper or post-From Out of the Rain tale. And this is why my brain came up with! But I have another post-Sleeper idea so maybe I'll write that one too, since it would be a much lighter story than this. However, I had fun with this one and must, as always, thank Avaantares for her help with the medical and weapons stuff. It's four parts and mostly done, so relatively quick updates. Thank you for reading!


	2. Part Two

Part Two

White hot pain shot through Ianto's left shoulder and he staggered. He heard Gwen-not-Gwen swear and saw her aim the pistol once more, her hand shaking as if trying not to pull the trigger. It was the first sign he'd had that maybe Gwen was still in there, fighting whatever had taken over her body. Before she could take another potentially fatal shot, he threw himself forward and tackled her once more, hoping she didn't hit her head as they fell.

The gun went off, missing them both before he managed to knock it away. She once again started flailing, and this time he knew he couldn't hold back: he hit her hard, and she went limp. He rolled away, gasping in pain and panic.

He needed Owen, to treat his wound, and Tosh, to start working on how to help Gwen. But the Hub was in lockdown, and Jack was probably still dead, locked up somewhere without his weapon. All Ianto had was himself, Jack's gun, and a bloody shoulder.

Right. He'd been shot. He needed to stop the bleeding first in order to help Gwen. But he couldn't leave her on the floor, unconscious; what if she woke up and attacked him again? He needed to subdue her, and in a way that she couldn't get out of this time. Apparently ties didn't make good restraining devices outside of the bedroom. Or Gwen had more experience with bondage than she let on.

Holding his injured arm close to his body, Ianto sat up and looked around, trying to think straight. Handcuffs. He needed handcuffs. Or Weevil clamps. Should be in his desk, they all had several pairs for field work. He stood and walked unsteadily over to his desk, where he found what he needed: plastic wrist straps. Stumbling back over to Gwen, he propped her up, pulled her arms behind her again, and lashed her to the large pole next to the sofa. He used his tie as a gag this time, because he didn't want to hear that awful voice coming from Gwen's mouth.

Then he walked toward the medical bay, making sure he grabbed Gwen's gun from where he'd tossed it on the sofa and picking up Jack's Webley from the floor. He pulled out his mobile phone, stowing one weapon in in his belt and one in his suit jacket as he called Owen.

"What the hell's going on?" the doctor asked without even saying hello. "Tosh said there's a code two. Are you inside?"

"Yes, I'm here," Ianto replied, too tired to snap. Getting shot hurt, and the pain was tiring; even going down the stairs to the medical bay was taking a forced effort. "I put the Hub on lockdown. I'll explain as soon as I—shit."

"What's wrong?"

Ianto stared at the medical bay in shock. It was a mess, with medical supplies scattered everywhere, and blood all over the floor. What had happened? It had to be Jack's. This must have been where Gwen killed him.

"There's blood all over the medical bay," Ianto told him, feeling strangely detached from the scene. "I think it's Jack's."

"What happened?" Owen snapped. "Dammit, Ianto, what's going on?"

"I've been shot," Ianto said, mustering up the strength to raise his voice. "So before I tell you about how bad my morning's been so far, tell me what to do or you're going to have an even bigger mess to clean up when you get here and I will haunt you through every minute of my autopsy."

"Shit," Owen muttered. "You could have said."

"I just did. I'm in the medical bay. The very bloody medical bay. What do I do besides try not to slip in it?"

"Are you safe?" Owen asked. "Because if there's an alien in the Hub shooting people, you need to get somewhere safe first."

"It's contained for now." Ianto started pulling out gauze and bandages and everything else he could remember seeing Owen use to treat gunshot wounds. "And I'm starting to feel light-headed, so tell me what to do before I can't see straight."

"Where did you get shot?"

"Left shoulder." Ianto waited for the inevitable.

"Damn, and it wasn't even me." Ianto rolled his eyes, even though the doctor couldn't see him. "All right, listen carefully, and I'll talk you through it. You'll be fine, you saw me do this a few months ago."

Ianto followed Owen's directions, patiently answering the doctor's questions as he treated his gunshot wound. Add that to the list of things he'd never done before but had now learned while working for Torchwood. After he had cleaned it and bandaged it and even put his arm in a sling, Owen directed him to the painkillers—the good, strong ones.

"No, I need to be able to think straight," Ianto told him. "What else can I take that will leave me clear-headed but pain-free?"

"Not much is going to take that kind of pain away," Owen warned him. "But you can double up some ibuprofen and cross your fingers. Tosh and I are on our way."

"The Hub is locked down, you know. You can't get in."

"Tosh is going to hack into the system and start the reset from the garage. Now, who shot you?"

"Gwen."

"What!"

"She's not herself," Ianto said. "Speaking of which, some sedative might be good in case she wakes up. I hit her hard, but she's stronger and crazier than usual."

Owen told him where to find a needle and syringe, then started asking more questions. Ianto tried to explain about Gwen, then wondered why Owen couldn't hang up and get the hell over there instead of wasting time talking about it. What was he supposed to do when he'd been shot, Gwen had been taken over by an alien, and Jack was—

"Jack!" Ianto exclaimed without even thinking. He hurried upstairs as fast as he could, which was not particularly quick; he felt like any minute he might crash, if not pass out. Remembering his coffee from earlier, he grabbed his mug as well as Gwen's as he went to Tosh's desk.

"What about Jack?" Owen asked. "He should have resurrected by now. Why isn't he there taking care of you? "

"Because I don't need Jack to take care of me," Ianto replied. "I've been shot and I'm handling it. Besides, he's clearly still dead or he'd be here making things much worse by now."

"Okay, do you know for sure that he's there, that he's dead?" Owen asked, as if talking to a young child. "Have you seen him? Or his body?"

"I told you already, there was blood all over the medical bay, and I saw it on the stairs. She must have lured him down somehow and killed him there, but I don't know what happened after that. Checking the CCTV now."

He pulled up the scene from the main part of the Hub. It had started well over an hour ago. Gwen had arrived exceptionally early, and Jack had come out to greet her. She had appeared nervous even then, and Ianto could see the concern and confusion on Jack's face. Gwen went down to the medical bay, and Jack followed, typing something into his wrist strap.

There was the sound of several gunshots—that explained the blood. After about twenty minutes, Ianto saw Gwen come back up and head downstairs. She left several bloody footprints along the way. Given that she hadn't been dragging a body, she must have sent Jack to the morgue through the elevator system. Which meant Jack was probably tucked away inside a drawer somewhere, either about to revive and find himself in a dark box, or already pounding his way out.

"He's probably in the morgue," Ianto told Owen over the phone. "Which seems awfully far at the moment, so he'll have to wait." He leaned on his elbows and closed his eyes, feeling faint.

"Ianto!" Owen shouted over the phone. "Stay with me. You have to get Jack. He can help you."

"I don't need Jack's help," Ianto muttered. "He took my shot, you know. I could have made the shot."

"What shot?" Owen asked. "You mean, with the blowfish? That was three weeks ago, mate."

"Bloody Torchwood," Ianto replied. "Like you said, he swans back in and expects everything to go right back to the way they were."

"Ianto, did you take the oxycodone?" Owen asked.

"I didn't take anything yet," Ianto snapped. "I need to keep my face on straight. I mean, my head. I need to keep my head on straight so Gwen doesn't start sprouting bloody tree limbs out of her arms—"

"Ianto, you're babbling. You might be going into shock. Sit down before you pass out."

Ianto sat down on the floor with a hard thump. "Ouch."

"Put your head between your knees."

He put the phone on the floor and talked down into it.

"Owen?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you here yet?"

"Not yet."

"My shoulder is killing me."

"I'm sure you patched it up fine," the doctor said. "You're probably coming down from an adrenaline high so it's going to feel even worse now. You need something to drink, something to eat. Anything sweet there this morning?"

"I brought pastries," Ianto told him. "Gwen ate the apple."

"She hates apple."

"Exactly. She's possessed." Ianto glanced up at Tosh's desk. "I have coffee. Hang on." He grabbed the two mugs he'd brought over, drank them both, then eyed the table by the sofa. He debated crawling, then decided he didn't want to get his pants dirty. Or more dirty, since he'd already been rolling around on the floor of the Hub, and not in a good way. So he walked over to the sofa, grabbed a muffin, and laid down.

To his surprise, he'd brought the phone with him.

"Ianto?" came Owen's tinny voice. "You still with me?"

"No," Ianto replied. "I'm not with anyone right now. Jack asked, and I said yes, but we haven't actually gone out yet. I'm still too pissed off at him." He stuffed half the muffin in his mouth. He felt tired and weak, but more than that, he felt the stirrings of panic scraping at the edge of his mind. He was locked in the Hub with his dead boss and a coworker-slash-alien who had shot him.

"You and me both," Owen said. "But hey, get out of this and you'll have something to laugh about when you do. Trust me, getting shot by a coworker is a gas."

"Very funny, Owen," Ianto replied. "And I'm sorry, you know."

"I know, you apologized that time we got drunk at the Dockside. Now, did you eat something? You sound like you're chewing."

"Yep," Ianto said, swallowing the muffin and wishing he had more coffee. "Already feeling better."

"Good. Are you sitting or laying down?"

"I'm _lying_  down," Ianto replied, then shook his head ruefully. "And I'm clearly starting to feel better if I'm correcting your grammar. Sorry."

"No problem. Glad to hear it. How's Gwen?"

Ianto glanced at the pole, where she was still sagged forward. "Out like a light. I hope I didn't hurt her. What next?"

"You said Jack's in the morgue, yeah?

"Most likely."

"Can you get down there?"

"I think so," Ianto replied. He took a deep breath and sat up; nothing spun around. He stood, and felt steady enough to take a few steps. "All right, I'm going to check on Jack. I'll call you back." He hung up the phone and started toward the morgue, making sure to avoid the bloody footprints. He tried not to think of it being Jack's blood, of Gwen shooting him and sending him to the morgue and dragging his blood through the Hub.

When he got to the morgue, he stopped and listened for shouting or thumping; nothing. He started checking the empty drawers until he found Jack—and swore vociferously before calling Owen.

"Find him?"

"Owen, he's frozen." Ianto stared down at Jack in the cryofreeze unit, the one they'd used for Beth the day before. How in the world had Gwen known what to do? She'd been there, but she had no medical training, no tech training, nothing. Some days she could barely print her shopping list.

Owen swore as well. "Dead or alive?"

"What?"

"Did she freeze him dead or alive? Check the side of the unit."

He did, but as best as he could tell, Jack had gone into the unit dead. There was still blood all over his torso, and Ianto thought he could see half closed wounds on his chest. Besides, how else could Gwen have got him into the unit, if not dead? Ianto was amazed she had managed to move Jack at all.

"Can I unfreeze him?" Ianto asked.

There was a long silence on the other side of the phone. "Owen?"

"Yes, but if she did something wrong, it could be bad for him."

"We're all having a bad day. He says he'll always come back. He died yesterday and came back."

"I know," Owen grumbled. "But I'm a doctor and that's still damn strange to me. How far along is it?"

Ianto squinted at the numbers again. "Looks like almost eighty percent. How long before you can get in?"

"Tosh said it'll take her a while to hack into the lockdown protocol—"

"She wrote it, why can't she hack it?"

"Because she's using a wireless laptop from her car," Owen replied. "And when she does get in, she said a complete reset takes an hour."

"Damn."

"Yep. We really need to work on our lockdown procedures, they keep biting us in the arse. Look, go ahead and start the defrosting procedure. It'll take at least two hours, even if he's only eighty percent. Coming out of cryofreeze takes longer than going under because we don't want to damage any tissue by warming them up too fast." He talked Ianto through the right sequence of buttons, and soon the unit started to click and whir.

"All right," Ianto said, stepping back. "Now I can do Tommy in a few weeks. So at least an hour for you and Tosh to get in, and two for Jack to get out. I need to sit down."

"As long as Gwen is secure, go right ahead," Owen head. "We'll be there as soon as we can."

"Thank, Owen. I'll check back in thirty minutes or so."

"Take it easy," Owen replied. "And be careful."

Ianto watched Jack for several minutes, when it suddenly hit him: this was as close to death for Jack as he could get. He hadn't resurrected, and he'd been frozen while he was dead. Because he was frozen, he was unable to come back, trapped between life and death. Ianto laid his hand on the unit and bowed his head, refusing to let his emotions get the better of him.

He'd been shot. By Gwen. And Jack had not only been shot, but killed and frozen. By Gwen. He told himself it wasn't her, it was the being inside her—however that had happened. They had been sure they'd defeated the sleepers of Cell 114, but something had gone wrong. One of them had survived—in Gwen.

What did that make her? Gwen had been so certain that Beth Halloran was human, all because she  _believed_  she was human. Was Gwen now an alien, because she believed herself an alien? Was a human in an alien body truly human? Was an alien in a human body truly alien?

No, this was different. This was Gwen. This was his coworker and friend. She was a human being who had been taken over by an alien consciousness. And they owed it to her to try and save her, to free her. She was a captive, a hostage—not the enemy. Gwen hadn't shot him, the alien inside her had shot him. Gwen had tried to stop it, had forced it to deliberately hit his shoulder and not his heart. He had to save her.

_Like you didn't save Lisa._

Ianto stepped back with a gasp, shaking his head as a sudden rush of memories threatened to overwhelm him. The tower, the battle, the bodies; running, fighting, looking frantically for Lisa. Finding her strapped to a conversion unit, getting her out, keeping her safe and searching desperately for a cure. He had done everything he could, but he had still failed Lisa. He could not fail Gwen. She would not be taken over by this being, not like Beth Halloran would have been taken over by her programming one day. Not like Lisa.

Ianto wished Jack was there—alive and awake— to help. He would know what to do far better than Ianto. He had heard of the sleepers, knew how they worked. Maybe he even knew what had happened to Gwen, how the alien had jumped bodies. Ianto may have told Owen he was handling it, but he wasn't. He'd been shot. His coworker was possessed. And Jack was dead and frozen.

Glancing down at Jack once more, Ianto resolved to finally move things forward with him once the situation was over. Jack had asked him on a date, and Ianto had said yes, but every time Jack had tried to follow through, Ianto had put him off. Something held him back—he wasn't sure what—but now, looking at Jack, he told himself not to put it off any longer. What if Jack didn't come back from one of his deaths? What if he left again? Ianto was scared of what it might mean to date Jack—his boss, a man, and someone he'd already had casual sex with—but he realized at that moment that he was more scared of not trying. Of not even taking the chance to see what it could be, all because he was afraid of what it could be. The irony was not lost on him.

"You'd better wake up, Jack. You promised dinner and a movie, and I think I'm ready to take you up on it," he murmured. "I'm sorry it's taken me so long. How about Saturday?"

He didn't lean down and kiss the container, though the thought did occur to him. Refusing to put himself squarely in a Mills and Boon novel, he turned to go upstairs. He should sit down, like he'd told Owen, but he needed to figure out how to save Gwen first.

Carefully making his way back upstairs to the main part of the Hub, Ianto found Gwen in a bad state. She was shaking, her head jerking, her breath coming in ragged gasps. The tie had come loose and fallen around her neck. He couldn't help but wonder if the alien was faking illness as a way to be released and approached her cautiously.

"Ianto," she gasped, and she opened bloodshot eyes to gaze up at him in desperation. "Help me, please!"

He dropped to his knees. Gwen was fighting.

"I don't know what to do," he told her. "Owen's on his way, you have to keep fighting."

She shook her head. Her lip had stopped bleeding, but she was sweating, her hair a tangled mess around her pale face. "I…I can't," she said. It sounded like she was working hard to get every word out. She shook her head, as if trying to clear it. "It's too strong."

"No, you're stronger," he told her. He reached up to touch her face. "Look at me. You can do this. This is your body, not theirs. And you want to keep it."

"I'm," she struggled again, a groan escaping her lips. "I'm sorry. I didn't…didn't mean to shoot you."

"I know," Ianto told her. "You stopped it, didn't you? From killing me."

"I tried," she gasped, then cried out. Her voice changed pitch, subtle, but eerie.

"You can't fight us, Ianto Jones. We're already here, walking among you. And even if you kill us, we will continue our mission."

"Gwen, fight it!" he shouted, dropping his hand, disgusted by the change in her demeanor. He couldn't imagine the pain she was going through.

"Ianto!" she gasped. Her head twisted at unnatural angles, like something from a horror movie. "It's in my head. It knows everything."

"Then we'll just have to get it out," Ianto replied as calmly as he could. He wished he could take her hand, pull her into an embrace. All he could do was lay his good hand on her knee and offer his reassurance. "I promise."

"I…it shot jack. So many times, oh god, Ianto—I killed Jack!"

"No, you didn't, the alien did it. You—"

"I tried to stop it, but I couldn't. Ianto, it made me do it, put him in cryofreeze—"

"You didn't do anything, Gwen. It wasn't you." Ianto couldn't imagine how awful she must feel, or how they would get through this when it was over, but they would. They always did. "And Jack will be fine, you know he will."

She dropped her head, and when she looked up, she was grinning madly; Gwen was gone again.

"But she did shoot him! She knows so much—so much that will help us. She helped us get rid of him, of the strange creature who won't die."

"Gwen doesn't know anything about cryofreeze," Ianto snapped.

"No, but I do," Gwen-not-Gwen replied. "I went through it. I needed her hands, though. Her weapon. Her authorization. We got him out of the way and then you walked in." She growled as she pulled at her binding. "You ruined everything!"

"I stopped you," Ianto replied, moving away from her violent thrashing. "We will always stop you. You won't get this planet."

Gwen-not-Gwen started to laugh, but it turned into a choke, and then a gasp, until her eyes rolled up in her head and she collapsed, falling forward. Ianto waited a moment, then checked her pulse: weak, but still alive.

"Ianto?" The whispered voice was Gwen. "You can't let it keep my body," she said. "You have to kill it, or it will use what I know. It could destroy Torchwood."

"It won't," he assured her. "We'll stop it. Tosh and Owen are both on the way. We'll figure it out."

She groaned, twisting horribly. "It hurts, Ianto—make it stop—it hurts!" She screamed and passed out again. The alien did not speak.

Ianto took a deep breath to settle his rattled nerves. He tried not to remember Lisa, begging him to stop the pain, crying as the programming invaded her mind and slowly took over her body. He would not fail Gwen.

But could he kill her to save her?

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got nothing, other than the usual disclaimer of not being a doctor, secret agent, or alien. Hope you enjoyed it, though! Thanks for reading!


	3. Part Three

Part Three

Ianto picked up his mobile and called Owen.

"Didn't we just hang up?" he said.

"Believe me, there are a dozen other people I'd rather call," Ianto replied. "Where are you?"

"In the car park. Tosh started hacking into the system. How's Jack?"

"Still cold. It's Gwen I'm calling about."

"All right. What's going on?"

Ianto told Owen about Gwen's condition, the battle going on within her and the toll it was clearly taking on her body. The doctor swore.

"Is she stable right now?"

"She's unconsciousness," Ianto said. "This is worse than the bloody Exorcist, Owen. Any moment she could start vomiting green fluid. What do I do?"

"I need to know her vitals. Grab a scanner from my desk and run it over her."

Ianto put the phone on speaker, moved as fast as he could to Owen's desk, and rustled through the mess, swearing under his breath. When he finally found what he needed, he hurried back. Gwen's breathing didn't sound good, and she was twitching, as if having a nightmare. He read off her vital signs to Owen, who was silent.

"Okay, what do we think is going on here? Because that affects how we treat her."

"From what I can tell, it's the same being as Beth, only its consciousness. It somehow transferred to Gwen before Beth died."

"How?"

"How the hell should I know? I was—" He stopped, then dropped to his knees and looked at Gwen's left arm. She was completely unresponsive as he pushed up her sleeve. "Yes, there's something here—looks like a puncture wound on her upper left arm. She's been rubbing it a lot."

"So maybe Beth stuck her with something when she grabbed Gwen yesterday?"

"Like her soul?" Ianto asked skeptically. He brushed the hair from Gwen's face; she was burning up. "Owen, aliens don't usually go around injecting people with their spirit."

"It wouldn't be the weirdest thing we've seen," Owen said. "All right, so she's got this alien consciousness inside her, and she's fighting it. It's taxing her body too much, that's why you're getting those readings."

"So…maybe now's the time for the sedative?" Ianto suggested. "Put them both to sleep so her body isn't torn in two?"

"That's assuming the sedative works on the alien," Owen pointed out.

"It's Gwen's body. She's still human, so it should knock her out."

"Not if the alien consciousness is strong enough to overcome the physical effects. You already said Gwen was stronger."

"Look, she's getting worse," Ianto told him as Gwen moaned in pain. "She's not going to last long. Isn't it at least worth trying?"

"If we put Gwen's consciousness to sleep and not the alien, she can't fight it," the doctor pointed out.

"She's in pain!" Ianto exclaimed. "You can't see how hard it is for her, how much it hurts."

The doctor was silent on the other end of the phone. "Fine, give her the sedative, but keep a close eye on her. Both eyes."

Ianto set the phone down, picked up the needle with the sedative he'd prepared earlier, and stuck Gwen in the right arm. Her eyes flew open and she thrashed and screamed. On the phone, Ianto could hear Owen shouting at him, asking if everything was all right. Gwen went limp again, and Ianto took a shaky breath.

"I think so, but it didn't like getting jabbed."

"Get some more, in case it wakes up. And get a few other things as well." Ianto grabbed the phone and went down to the medical bay, gathering everything Owen directed him to find: additional sedative, pain killers, epinephrine, bandages, and more.

"Do you have a weapon?"

Ianto nodded, then remembered he was on the phone, that Tosh and Owen were locked out and couldn't see him nodding. He sat down for a moment on the steps, a rush of dizziness and fatigue overtaking him.

"Ianto, you okay?" Owen asked.

"I'm fine, Owen," he replied wearily. "But I really want to end this and get back to work."

"Right," Owen laughed. "Making coffee with a bum arm."

"It's my left," Ianto told him. "So don't worry, you won't go into withdrawal." He lapsed into silence, his body aching, his mind just about done for the day, and it wasn't even ten in the morning.

"Ianto, you need to stay awake. How's Jack? Why don't you go check on him."

"Owen, I'm okay, I—"

"You're injured and alone and you can't lose focus now. You're doing brilliant, so keep it up a little longer."

"Always so surprised," Ianto grumbled, but he stood up, his brief rest over, and started back up the stairs.

"I'm not. You're good at this, mate, you just don't think you are. None of us think we are. But we saved the world yesterday and we'll do it again today. Got it?"

"Right, and then I'm going to—" He stopped in his tracks, dropping all the supplies as his brain went into denial.

Gwen was gone.

Before he could even begin to think of how she had got out of the cuffs, he was knocked over from the side by a shrieking blur which crashed to the ground on top of him. His shoulder screamed in agony as she sat on top of him, lashing out and shouting, her face distorted with anger and pain.

"Gwen!" he shouted. "Fight it! Get off and fight it! This isn't you!"

The being hit him hard, then sat back and grinned. For some reason, that made him mad. It was one thing to be attacked by a possessed coworker, quite another to be laughed at by an alien using her body to pummel him. He'd already been shot, he wasn't going to be mocked.

Instead of resisting, he went limp, which took her by surprise—enough that she started to fall forward, and he literally propelled her five feet backward and off him. He scrambled away, groping for one of the guns he'd taken earlier. It had been lost in the scuffle, but he reached into his coat for the other and pulled it out, aiming Jack's Webley at Gwen.  _Gwen._  How could he even be thinking about it?

"I don't want to shoot you," he said. "So why don't you surrender now and maybe we won't scatter your consciousness across the cosmos."

"You can't kill me without killing her," the thing inside Gwen sing-songed at him.

"I don't believe you," Ianto shouted. "You got in, so we can kick you out."

"But if you shoot, you'll kill her body," it said. "That's why you won't."

Ianto stood slowly, keeping the gun as steady as he could and failing as his hand shook. "Why are you still here? The rest of your cell is dead."

She hissed at him. "They're dead because of you! We were so close. I'm going to finish what they started, beginning with this city." She turned and walked away.

Toward the Rift Manipulator.

He should have shot her, should have stopped her. But it was Gwen. He couldn't kill her, not without giving her a fighting chance to get rid of the thing that was using her. He had to help her, not execute her. Swearing under his breath, he followed, Jack's weapon still trained on her back.

"Stop!" he shouted. "Gwen, fight it."

Gwen-not-Gwen stopped, shuddered, and kept walking. Ianto glanced wildly around; it was like he'd traveled back in time six months and was shouting at Owen to get away from the manipulator. Why did his life insist on repeating its worst moments? He needed something besides a pistol, because he didn't want to shoot another coworker.

Hurrying over to his desk, he yanked it open and grabbed his stun gun. Concealing it in his coat as best as he could, he moved quietly back toward where Gwen was staring at the Rift Manipulator, Jack's Webley still trained on her back. Her head was cocked, as if she was listening to a voice only she could hear.

"Gwen doesn't know how to work it," Ianto called. "So you may as well leave her alone now. She can't help you."

"She is a vessel," Gwen-not-Gwen replied. "She doesn't know how to work your machine, but I do. I've been gathering data on you since the moment I stepped into your little cave."

"If you open the Rift, you'll destroy the city!" Ianto moved closer, trying to remain as calm and unobtrusive as possible.

"I know," she snapped. "You stopped us yesterday, but you will not stop us today."

"What's the point?" Ianto asked, still moving closer. "I thought you studied us, then moved in to invade. If you destroy everything, what's left for you?"

"The rest of the world," it replied. "A catastrophic loss will demonstrate our power and weaken your leaders. We will move in and take what's left."

"It will unite them, strengthen them," Ianto told her. "Destroying Cardiff will only make the rest of the world fight back harder, or you don't know us at all."

Gwen hissed at him and turned back to the manipulator. Ianto moved closer. She held up a hand and told him to stand back. He shook his head and stepped forward.

"You're defenseless," Ianto told her. "You have no weapon and you can't leave. The others will be here soon, and Jack will be out of cryofreeze. He's not as forgiving as the rest of us, so I suggest you surrender now." He hoped the alien didn't have complete access to Gwen's memories, because Jack was probably the most forgiving of them all.

"You won't kill her," she said. "You can't."

Another step. His hand was steadier but his heart raced, knowing he was facing a powerful alien presence with otherworldly strength. He told himself it wasn't Gwen, Gwen didn't want to hurt him, but the being inside her could and would kill him. He had to move quick. No hesitation.

"I can, but I don't need to. You can't open the rift. There's a piece missing from the manipulator."

She stopped, cocked her head in that odd way, and growled in the alien language. Ianto wondered if she was swearing. "Where is it?" she demanded.

"Locked up," Ianto said. He raised Jack's Webley once more and mustered as much conviction as he could; it didn't feel like much. "So move away. You've lost."

"You know everything about this place. Get it for me."

"No."

The ugly grin appeared. "Get it or I will leave her body an empty shell. Right now her consciousness is still useful—and still fighting. Get me the key or I will snuff her out like an insect."

He believed it. For a moment, he faltered, wondering if his plan was a terrible idea, if he was going to fail and watch her level the city. No, he could do this. He had lied and deceived and tricked before, he could do it again. He let his shoulders sag the slightest.

"Leave her alone," he said, and didn't need to fake the plea in his voice. "It's in the secure archive. But it needs two fingerprints to access."

A pause. "She is not aware of this. You're lying."

"Tosh reset all the security protocols last night," Ianto said wearily. "Including the secure archives. Gwen wasn't here at the time, it's part of our briefing today."

Gwen-not-Gwen narrowed her eyes. He hoped she believed him, because he'd already mentioned the security change once. And Tosh had changed most of the security protocols, but not the secure archives. Only he and Jack could open those.

"Set down your weapon," she said. "And we will get the key together. If you don't cooperate, she will die."

Ianto nodded as he set down the pistol and raised his hands. Grimacing as if his shoulder pained him (which it did), he slipped his hand into his coat to support his arm. Nodding toward Jack's office, she motioned him forward first. He moved slowly, calculating the best moment to strike. When they stepped into Jack's office, he whirled around, the stun gun raised and ready. His first shot was to her shoulder; she yelled in pain, but did not fall. He managed a second one to her abdomen, but instead of falling, she threw herself at him, sending them crashing backward against Jack's desk. They both sank to the floor.

"You will not win," she ground out, scrabbling for the gun. Somehow, he managed to hold onto it, gripping it so tight his fingers hurt. She hit his head hard against the floor, once, then twice. His vision blurred and he knew he was going to lose consciousness; with an effort he didn't know he had in him, he raised his right arm and pressed the gun against her temple, pulling the trigger and holding it there. She shouted as she convulsed, and Ianto could swear he saw a bright light and a rush of energy fill the room. With a dramatic roll of her eyes and one final shudder, she collapsed on top of him, unconscious.

He pushed her off, breathing hard. He needed to confine her—bind her again, get her down to the cells where she wouldn't escape a third time. But he could barely move. She'd hit him hard, and his shoulder was on fire, and what the hell had happened at the end? Even trying to sit up brought a crushing wave of pain and nausea, and he fell back to the floor, cursing at his weakness.

He tried so hard to cling to consciousness, but he couldn't. As the world faded into darkness, he only hoped Tosh and Owen found them before Gwen woke up and destroyed the world.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter sometime this weekend. Thank you to those of you who have commented or left kudos! They are the only way we authors know if anyone is out there reading the story and actually enjoying it. Otherwise our default setting is to assume that no one is reading it because the story sucks. And that's no different for those of us who have been around here for a while or those who are just joining, for those of us who have written many stories and those who have only written a few. Comments are so appreciated and I always enjoy answering questions. Thank you and enjoy the end!


	4. Part Four

 

 

Part Four

Ianto awoke in one of the rooms they kept for recovery. Most people did not enjoy waking up on a metal autopsy table, and so once upon a time a few cots had been thrown into an empty room nearby. Eventually some medical equipment had been added, along with blankets and pillows. Ianto had tried to keep it neat and organized, but it wasn't until Gwen had joined Torchwood and had her third stay in the room that she'd asked him to help her spruce it up: fresh paint, a table and plant, even a picture on the wall; an old cd player, a small refrigerator for snacks, a space heater for when it was too cold with even the new blankets to stay warm.

He didn't open his eyes right away; they felt heavy, like his arms and legs and even his fuzzy mind. He considered going back to sleep, but eventually decided against it. There was an IV drip in his arm, which meant Tosh and Owen had got into the Hub since Ianto did not remember inserting it himself. He needed to know what had happened. Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes and glanced around for Gwen, hoping she was all right, that Owen had got to her in time and saved her from the alien trying to take over.

She was not there.

Instead, Jack was sitting next to him, a blanket around his shoulders as he leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. He looked tired and worn out and vulnerable. Fortunately, he was sitting on Ianto's right, so Ianto reached out with his good arm and touched Jack's hand, letting it rest on Jack's knee. Jack looked up in surprise.

"Are you all right?" Ianto asked him, his voice coming out in a croak. He noticed a bottle of water next to his bed and started to sit up so he could drink something. Jack helped, propping another pillow behind him. He handed him the water and let him drink, then took Ianto's hand, holding tight. It was strange, but nice.

"I should be asking you that question," Jack said.

"I wasn't shot, killed, and put in cryofreeze," Ianto pointed out.

"You were shot," Jack replied. "And knocked around quite a bit."

"You died," said Ianto. "You first."

"I'm fine," Jack said, sounding weary. "Really. Completely recovered. Only complaint is a bad case of the chills. Your turn."

Ianto shook his head, not wanting to think about it. "I'm fine, how's Gwen? Is she alive? Is she okay?" He couldn't imagine anything worse than losing a coworker at that moment. He cared about them, all of them, and the thought of losing Gwen to an alien invader because he hadn't been able to save her…he didn't think he'd be able to live with himself. Not again.

Jack nodded. "She's alive, and Owen says she'll be all right."

Ianto let go of Jack's hand and fell back with a sigh of relief that turned into a groan when he jostled his shoulder. "Thank god. What about the alien? Did Owen get it out yet?"

"Actually, you did," Jack said. "At least, that's what he thinks. There's no sign of any foreign presence. After you stunned her, there was a large burst of energy. Tosh and Owen think it was the alien consciousness."

"And it's gone?" Ianto asked. "Just like that?" His heart skipped a beat as a terrible thought occurred to him. "Wait, what if it's in me? How can you be sure it isn't?" A monitor above him beeped, no doubt reminding him to stay calm.

Jack took his hand again. "Calm down or Owen's going to want to knock you out again. We've done everything we can and we're ninety-nine percent sure the alien is gone. Both you and Gwen are safe."

"Ninety-nine percent?" Ianto asked. "That's not completely reassuring. That one percent could mean the end of the world around here."

"It's the best we've got. Tosh pulled up the footage from when Beth grabbed Gwen yesterday. You can see her stick Gwen in the arm, and Owen found traces of some unknown chemicals at the sight that are rapidly breaking down. We think that's how it transferred its consciousness, through some kind of chemical means. You haven't been stuck, and there's no trace of any of the same chemicals in you."

"But Gwen will be all right? How does Owen know?"

"I ran a few scans with my wrist strap when she came in this morning. She was acting too strange, even for Gwen. He compared them to her readings now, and everything's back to normal, matching what we have on file."

"But Beth produced a smokescreen, projected false readings. What if Gwen is doing that? What if I am?"

Jack blew out a frustrated breath. "Will you listen to me? You are not an alien, and neither is Gwen. Beth projected that image with the technology in her arm. There is no such technology in Gwen, anywhere, nor is there anything in you. If there was, it would have activated yesterday. All Beth did, near as we can tell, is transfer her consciousness. It's a damn good backup plan." He sat back. "We're already tracking down those closest to the other three cell members yesterday, to see if we might be dealing with another transfer of consciousness."

"And if there are others? What then?" The grim situation from the previous day had become worse: bad enough a cell of sleeper agents had been found in their midst, but an alien who could transfer its consciousness to a new body and continue the mission was practically unstoppable.

"We zap 'em," Jack said with a grin. "You were smart enough to find us the solution."

"But how do we know it worked?" Ianto pressed. "I have to be sure."

"Owen's run every test he can think of on Gwen and found nothing. Between that and the energy that was released when you stunned her, Tosh is pretty darn sure the alien got blown right out of Gwen and into subatomic pieces." He stopped and leaned forward again. "Now, enough about that. Answer the question this time. How are you? And don't say fine."

Ianto turned away and thought about it. "I'm tired and sore. I had to shoot a coworker—"

"She shot you first, you know."

"—again and I'm kind of sick of it. For once I'd like to be able to resolve things in a professional manner rather than fighting."

"Yeah, I can't tell if Tosh is feeling left out or terrified," Jack said.

Ianto's head flipped over too fast and he winced. "What? No, you're—"

"Kidding," Jack reassured him. "It was a bad joke. You did what you had to do today, Ianto. And trust me, when Gwen wakes up, she's probably going to feel worse."

"She wasn't herself," Ianto told him. "We can't hold it against her."

"I know," Jack said. "I could tell almost immediately something was wrong. Though the image of Gwen pumping bullets into me is not good one—and reviving in a cold coffin didn't help."

"You forgave me," Ianto said. "You can forgive her."

"I can," Jack agreed, watching him closely. "Can you?"

Ianto hesitated, then hated himself for hesitating. "Yes," he said. "I can."

"Good man," Jack murmured. His eyes slipped closed.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Ianto asked after a long moment of silence.

"Told you, I'm still cold. And I've had crap coffee all morning."

"All morning?" Ianto exclaimed. "What time is it?"

"A little after lunch, but we were hoping you and Gwen would be up soon and might want to eat something?"

Which was when Ianto realized he was starving, and said so. Jack laughed. "We've already got your favorite orders ready to go."

Ianto waited for Jack to say more, but he didn't. "What about tonight? Do I have to stay here?"

Jack looked hesitant. "It would probably be a good idea," he started, but Ianto interrupted him.

"I'd rather go home," he said. "Sleep in my own bed."

"Standard protocol is to stay for observation," Jack said. "In case something happens."

"You can come home with me."

Jack's head whipped up. "What?"

"Come home with me," Ianto said. "Tonight. You've had a hard day, you shouldn't have to stay here."

"Someone has to stay," Jack started. "Keep an eye on Gwen—"

Ianto rolled his eyes. "She's not going to stay either, you know that. She'll want to be home with her fiancé. And if not, Owen's the doctor, he can keep an eye on her."

Jack looked like he wanted to say yes, but he still shook his head. "I can't, I should be here. And we're not in that kind of place right now. We haven't even gone on that date yet!"

"How about Saturday? There's a new steakhouse in Pennarth we could try, and there are several decent movies playing at the cinema we could see after."

Jack stared at him in surprise. "Are you asking me on a date?"

"Interested?" Ianto asked, replaying their conversation from the office block.

"Yes." Jack grinned and leaned down to kiss him. It wasn't the first time they'd kissed since he'd been back, but it was the longest and most meaningful kiss they'd had in months. Ianto half wondered why he'd waited so long. It felt good, and right.

"So you'll come back to mine tonight?" Ianto asked. Jack stopped and studied him, as if trying to gage the sincerity of his words, but did not answer. "Don't stay here alone," Ianto said. "Not after what happened today."

Jack nodded and kissed him again. "Okay," he answered. "Thank you. No expectations, though."

"I've been shot," Ianto said dryly. "I have no expectations whatsoever." They kissed some more, and he smiled against Jack's lips. "Although, if you're still cold, you could use my bath, and I could watch."

Jack laughed, and they continued kissing, leisurely exploring and enjoying one another without any intent to take it further (gunshot wound aside), until there was a cough at the door. Ianto pulled back immediately, but Jack smiled and lingered, touching his face briefly before sitting back. Somehow, he was holding Ianto's hand again. Tosh stood in the doorway, looking anywhere but at them.

"Er, sorry," she said, meeting Jack's eyes, but not Ianto. "But Gwen is awake. She's…" She glanced apologetically at Ianto. "She's quite upset. Owen's given her something, but she's asking for you. I told her you were with Ianto, and then she got even more upset and wanted to come down and see Ianto, but I didn't know if you were awake…"

Jack sighed and squeezed Ianto's hand. "Are you okay? I should talk to her."

"I'm fine," Ianto replied, even though a part of him wanted Jack to stay. "Go ahead. I can't imagine how she must be feeling right now."

"I'll stay," Tosh said immediately. "Keep you company, if you're up for it."

Ianto smiled at her and nodded. "Absolutely. You can tell me more about what happened after I lost consciousness."

Jack kissed him on the forehead, looking concerned. "There's nothing to worry about. Don't wear him out with the details, Tosh. I'll be back with lunch in a little while."

He stood up to leave, but Ianto called him back. "Can we eat in the Hub? I don't want to stay in here all day. And tell Gwen…" He shook his head. "I don't even know what to tell her. Tell her I'm come see her when she's done crying on your shoulder."

Jack grinned. "So sometime tomorrow, then?"

Tosh snickered, then covered her mouth and apologized. Jack left and she took his seat, looking awkward. "How are you?" she asked. "How is your shoulder?"

"Hurts like hell," he shrugged. "But I'm fine, honestly. I'm glad it's over."

"Busy morning," she pointed out.

"You have no idea," he murmured with a smile. "I'm going to make sure I'm definitely the first one in every day."

She frowned. "You need to rest first. We can take care of things around here."

"Even the coffee?" he teased, but she did not smile.

"Even the coffee. You should take some time," she said. "I can't imagine what it was like, seeing Gwen like that, getting shot, finding Jack…"

Ianto sighed and reached out for her hand. "Tosh, it wasn't her. I know that, and you know that, and hopefully Gwen knows it too."

"I know," Tosh murmured, looking down. "We watched the CCTV footage, though, and it's awful. I don't know how you managed to stay calm."

"I faked it," Ianto told her, thinking back to how many times he almost panicked. "And lucked out at the end."

"Ianto!" she exclaimed. "You didn't luck out, you were amazing. You locked down the Hub, stopped her from opening the Rift, and saved Gwen."

"I got shot," he said. "I have scratches and bruises everywhere. My head hurts. And there's blood all over the place!"

She smiled. "Owen cleaned it all up."

"What?" Ianto exclaimed in mock surprise. "Maybe I should get shot more often."

She took his hand again. "Please don't."

"No plans," he murmured, and closed his eyes.

"So," she said after a moment, drawing it out. "Sorry I interrupted earlier, but what did I interrupt exactly?"

"Tosh…"

"Ianto," she parroted. She glanced at the door and leaned closer. "That was not a quick welcome back kiss, that was a something more kiss." He didn't say anything. "Fine, don't talk. I know what I saw."

"There's nothing to say," Ianto told her.

"Are you sleeping together?" she asked, surprisingly bold for Tosh, who tended not to nose around in other people's lives.

"No," Ianto answered honestly. She gave him a skeptical look and he shrugged. "Not since he came back."

"Then what was that? He's been so worried, sitting down here for hours, and then I walk in and he's kissing you like that!"

"We, er…" Ianto wasn't sure why he was struggling with it, other than it was something he didn't want the whole team to know about. Not right away, anyway. Maybe eventually, if it worked out. Or maybe not. Tosh might be thrilled, but what would Gwen think? Or Owen? The doctor was sure to give him a difficult time, he did about everything else. Ianto was perhaps too aware of his place on the team and what it meant to sleep with the boss. He didn't want it to complicate his relationship with the others, and yet, it hadn't before, had it? But that was when they'd kept it to themselves.

"It's okay, you know," Tosh said, as if reading his mind. "If you're together, and if you don't want to talk about it." The tone of her voice was understanding, but still curious.

"We have a date this weekend," Ianto finally told her. "So there really is nothing more to say, because I don't know what will happen, where it will go after that. We'll see." He met her eyes with a tentative smile, and she touched his hand.

"I'm happy for you," she said. "And I hope it's amazing!"

"Thanks, Tosh," he said. "I do too, to be honest."

"Oh, I think—" She was interrupted by Owen poking his head inside the room.

"Food's here. Think you can keep it down, teaboy?"

Ianto was tempted to stick his tongue out, but resisted because he was hungry. He was still sore and moved his legs slowly off the bed. Closing his eyes as his head exploded a little with the movement, he opened them to find Owen shining a light into his face.

"Get off," he grumbled. "I'm fine."

"You've got a slight concussion," Owen replied. "But Jack said you wanted to eat with the team. You sure you can make it?"

He stood up and gave the doctor a triumphant look, even though his head was still pounding. Lying in bed hungry was not the answer, though; he wanted to move, to be with the others, to see Gwen. He might even be persuaded to make some coffee.

"I'm tired of being in here," he said. "So yes, I can make it."

"It hasn't been that long," Owen said. "You only woke up a little while ago."

"And I'll probably sleep again when I'm done," Ianto replied. "But for now, it's the fresh air of the Hub. How's Gwen?"

"Less hysterical than she was half an hour ago," Owen replied. "She looks like hell, but so do you."

"Thanks," Ianto murmured.

"You look fine," Tosh said from behind him. "Like you took on an alien sleeper agent again and won."

Owen grunted. "You didn't die, and that's always a win in our book."

Ianto followed him from the room. "No one's told me what happened after I lost consciousness. When did you and Tosh get in?"

"Exactly an hour, like I told you. We got in and found you both in Jack's office. Tosh stayed with Gwen while I cleaned up your shoulder. You're welcome," he added over his shoulder. "And then we started looking over Gwen, who is completely alien free thanks to you and your stun gun."

"It took three tries," Ianto said quietly, remembering that horrifying moment. "It should have taken one shot."

Owen stopped and turned around. "I know, we saw the footage. You did what you had to do." He turned and left, but Ianto did not follow.

"Gwen is going to hate me," he whispered to Tosh, standing beside him. "I hit her and tied her up and knocked her out—"

"Ianto!" Tosh said, taking his hand and squeezing. "It's all right. She doesn't hate you, she's terrified you'll never talk to her again! Come on," she continued, pulling him gently into the main part of the Hub. "Let's go eat. It'll be fine."

Ianto actually took a step backward and shook his head. "No, I should stay. Let the rest of you be with her. I can eat in my room and—"

"No!" she said, pulling him forward. "You are not running away. You had to make terrible decisions today and you were amazing. You have nothing to be ashamed of and everything to be proud of, so come and eat with us." She smiled. "Please?"

His heart was racing, but he took a deep breath and followed her forward without a word. Gwen was sitting on the sofa by herself, wrapped in a blanket and staring at the table as Jack unpacked several bags of food. She heard them enter and looked up, standing wordlessly when she saw him. She did look awful, with a bruise growing darker on her face, her hair still in tangles, her eyes red from crying; he didn't want to know what he looked like, with his own scratches and bruises and left arm in a sling.

Jack turned and glanced behind him, then moved away with a slight tilt of his head toward Tosh. She squeezed Ianto's hand one more time before dropping it and walking away with Jack, leaving Ianto and Gwen alone.

He could see she was shattered, and all of his fears melted away. He only wanted it to be done, to move on. Stepping up next to her, he touched her face as a tear slid down her bruised cheek.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, because he had done that, and she shook her head, tears pouring from her eyes.

"Don't be," she said, then wiped ineffectively at her face. "I'm the one who—I'm so, so sorry, Ianto. I couldn't stop it—I tried so hard but I wasn't strong enough and I shot you and Jack and I don't know if—"

"Shh," he said, pulling her into a one-armed embrace with his good hand. "It wasn't you. I know that. Jack knows that. It'll be okay." He told himself that, but he wasn't sure he believed it, because while he could forgive Gwen, he wasn't sure if he could forgive himself for what he'd done to her.

Gwen sniffled and leaned her head against his chest. They stood like that for several moments, gently rocking, occasionally sniffling. Eventually Ianto heard a noise and glanced over Gwen to see Jack standing nearby, Tosh and Owen behind him. They were clearly giving him and Gwen time to talk, but there wasn't much else to say, not at that moment. Maybe there would be more, when it wasn't so recent. What had it felt like, to have another consciousness in her head? How long had she known, and how had she fought it off? And where did she learn to get out of restraints so fast?

He smiled to himself as he thought that last, recognizing it as his mind trying to make light of the horror. Catching Jack's eye, he nodded. They were ready. Jack nodded back and the three of them moved forward, quiet and slow. Gwen heard them and stepped away from Ianto's embrace.

"Sorry," she murmured, patting a wet spot on his chest.

"Shirt's already ruined," he said. Her face fell and he shook his head, realizing she might not be ready for jokes. "I didn't like this one anyway, too green."

She smiled. "Red's more your color," she said. "Like yesterday."

"Then I'll get another red shirt just for you," he said.

"I like red." Jack came up behind him, placed his hand on Ianto's good shoulder and squeezed a little, leaving his hand there. "Red's definitely your color."

Gwen frowned slightly, and Ianto rolled his eyes to forestall any comment about the touch or the comment. "Yes, well at least I wear more than six shades of blue."

"I have red suspenders," Jack pointed out, but dropped his hand and was grinning. "And tan, too."

Having successfully riled up Jack and deflected Gwen from any questions, Ianto exchanged a smile with her and they sat down on the sofa. Jack sat next to him, his hand immediately on Ianto's knee. He glanced down with an embarrassed frown, then looked up to find both Tosh and Owen smirking at him. Tosh actually hid a laugh when Jack leaned forward to help Ianto with his plate.

"I can manage, sir," he murmured. Owen snorted and Gwen smiled as she reached for her own food.

"I'd take him up on any help he offers," she said. "Since he offers so rarely."

"And Gwen is one hundred percent back to being Gwen!" Jack announced. He took a bite of his sandwich, wiped his mouth, and talked with his mouth full. "Picking on the boss like a normal day."

She smiled again but did not reply.

"Better than cryofreeze," Owen offered. The room went silent. "Sorry, too soon?" he asked sarcastically. "Because the sooner we can joke about it the better."

"I'm fine with it," Jack said after a moment. "Although I think I'd really like a thick scarf for Boss's Day this year."

Owen nodded in approval and Tosh shook her head fondly. But Gwen looked confused. Ianto patted her on the leg.

"Definitely not blue," he told her. "Something with color."

She leaned her head on his shoulder and sighed. "We can go shopping together sometime if you let me buy you lunch."

"Oh, he gets a scarf and I get fish and chips?" Ianto teased, and they laughed, and he knew that it would be okay. They would get through this—they already were. Gwen would feel guilty for what she'd done to him and Jack, and Ianto would feel guilty for what he'd done to Gwen, but in the end, they would joke about it and move on, and maybe, just maybe, they'd all grow a little closer from it.

He already felt closer to Jack, after all: they finally had plans for their date and had shared an amazing kiss earlier. And Jack had said he'd come back to Ianto's flat for the night. It had taken almost losing him again for Ianto to realize that he wanted to be with Jack and see where it might go. He was looking forward to spending time with Jack later that night, and already both nervous and excited about the weekend.

Gwen stayed close during lunch, as if seeking comfort, and Jack sat close as well, constantly touching him as if making sure he was all right. They soon talked and laughed as if the events of that morning had happened weeks ago. Looking around the Hub, Ianto decided that he had both the worst job in the world, and the best. It was only working for Torchwood that he had been forced to fight coworker possessed by an alien determined to destroy the world by opening the Rift. But it was by working for Torchwood that he had met the people who were now so important to him. It was how he had met Jack, and he wouldn't change it for the world.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The End! I hope you enjoyed this short story. I would love to know what you thought. Comments are lifeblood for those of us who do this for free. Thank you!


End file.
